In their Wisdom by C.P. Snow

There were times when Ryle couldn't repress asking Hillmorton a question about Liz just for the pleasure, or the mirage satisfaction, of mentioning her name. He knew that he could only get evasive exercises in reply, and he knew too by now that Hillmorton had his own private entertainment because his old and sensible friend was not behaving like an old and sensible man.

Ryle didn't excuse himself: though in fact, apart from those questions to Liz's father, he didn't commit other follies in action, even if some filtered through his mind. He had once given Liz advice on this same topic: he must have been one of the few men, it occurred to him, to follow his own advice himself. Yet, sitting in his drawing-room at Whitehall Court, he sometimes felt the spring of the nerves when the telephone rang: only to find that it was his stockbroker or accountant.